knsd

SAN DIEGO - State and federal authorities described a weekend cockfighting raid as the biggest in U.S. history after agents found more than 4,400 birds being raised and trained to kill at the same compound where they carried out what was then the largest bust six years ago.

Hundreds more birds were found at a second training ground nearby in Nestor, near the Otay Mesa industrial area of San Diego, officials told NBC affiliate KNSD-TV. They said more than 5,000 birds were discovered at the two locations altogether .

The raid culminated a six-month investigation involving nine local, state and federal agencies in cooperation with the Humane Society of the United States and the San Diego Humane Society.

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Fifty people were charged with misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine, and were ordered to answer to cockfighting charges in early December, said Paul Levikow, a spokesman for the San Diego County district attorney's office.

Another 50 people were still being sought Tuesday, authorities said. San Diego is a major naval center, and the district attorney's office said some of those charged were retired or active-duty military personnel.

"This is the largest cockfighting ring ever busted up in the United States because of the number of defendants and the number of birds seized," Levikow said.

Many of the birds were underfed, injured or mutilated for competition, authorities said. About 80 percent were euthanized.

Philippine connection alleged
The operation was managed and patronized largely by Filipinos, and fights were staged in the San Diego area, officials told KNSD. But the operation also sent many of its birds to the Philippines, authorities said.

Cockfighting is legal in the Philippines, where it is called "sabong" and is considered to be a national pastime. Crowds gather in large arenas seven days a week to wager on their favorite birds.

Indeed, local officials promote cockfighting as a lure for tourists. "Blending science, art, superstition and gambling, cockfighting is gymnastics as much for cocks as for spectators," the tourism department in the central province of Western Visayas touts on its Web site.


Click for related content
Humane Society fact sheet on cockfighting


But in the United States, cockfighting is widely considered a barbarity, a bloody sport in which trained roosters, often pumped up with aggression-boosting drugs and sporting spurs or razors, fight to the death. When Louisiana's new ban goes into effect next summer, it will be outlawed in all 50 states.

"Both birds will typically attack each other, collide somewhere in the pit, and it will be just a bloody blur of feathers," said Eric Sakach, California director of the Humane Society of the United States. "Birds are literally being mutilated, sliced right there. Whole appendages can fall off."

Largest previous raid at same site
The operation in San Diego was especially sophisticated, said Lt. Dan DeSousa of the San Diego County Animal Services Department.

"This is what we call a life-to-death operation for these birds," he said. "They were raised on site. They would sell the eggs to people that wanted a championship bloodline for these birds."

The site was the scene of what had previously been the largest cockfighting raid in the nation's history. In May 2001, authorities discovered more than 2,500 fighting birds on the same ranch after a two-year undercover investigation.

It was also the second major cockfighting bust this year in San Diego County, which boasts an unwanted reputation as one of the centers of the underground cockfighting scene. In May, hundreds of fighting birds were seized in rural Pauma Valley.

More than 50 cases related to the sport have been filed in the past six years, the San Diego district attorney's office said.

Cockfighting raid may be biggest in US historyMSNBC
- Oct 17, 2007
- Oct 17, 2007
The operation was managed and patronized largely by Filipinos, and fights were staged in the San Diego area, officials told KNSD. ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
Lee Grant's OuttakesSan Diego Union Tribune
- Oct 15, 2007
- Oct 15, 2007
Why do KNSD/Channel 7/39's Marty Levin and Susan Taylor end their 11 pm news broadcast with "Jay Leno is coming up next" while KFMB/Channel 8's Barbara-Lee ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
You're in controlSan Diego Union Tribune
- Sep 23, 2007
- Sep 23, 2007
"Chuck," Mondays at 8 pm, NBC (KNSD/Channel 39); "Aliens in America," Mondays at 8:30 pm, The CW (KSWB/Channel 69); "The Big Bang Theory," Mondays at 8:30 ...
clipped from Google - 10/2007
SD resident kicked off 'Loser'North County Times, USA
- Oct 11, 2007
- Oct 11, 2007
"The Biggest Loser" airs at 8:30 pm Tuesdays on KNSD/Channel 39. Watching the new ABC show "Pushing Daisies," it's hard not to think it's so good that it ... KNSD
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KNSD

San Diego, California
Branding NBC7/39
NBC San Diego
Slogan Coverage You Can Count On
Channels Analog: 39 (UHF)
Digital: 40 (UHF)
Affiliations NBC
NBC Weather Plus (DT2)
Owner Station Venture Operations, LP
(NBC Universal, 76%/
LIN Television, 24%)
Founded November 14, 1965
Call letters meaning K
NBC
San
Diego
Former callsigns KAAR-TV (1965-1968)
KCST-TV (1968-1988)
Former affiliations independent (1965-1972)
ABC (1972-1977)
Transmitter Power 2510 kW (analog)
370 kW (digital)
Height 577 m (analog)
566 m (digital)
Facility ID 35277
Transmitter Coordinates 32°41′48.8″N, 116°56′9.4″W
Website www.nbcsandiego.com

KNSD is the NBC television station based in San Diego, California. It uses the on-air branding NBC 7/39, which reflects its channel location on all San Diego-area cable systems (7) and its over-the-air analog channel number (39). It is owned by a joint venture of NBC Universal (76 percent) and LIN Television (24 percent). However, NBC Universal runs KNSD as an NBC owned and operated station. The master control center and local commercial insertion for KNSD is at the NBC West Coast headquarters in Burbank, California.

NBC 7/39 Weather Plus is seen on KNSD's digital sub-channel.

Contents
1 History
2 Programming
3 Personnel
4 Personalities
4.1 Current
4.2 Past
5 Trivia
6 External links



[edit] History
The station went on the air on November 16, 1965 as KAAR-TV, San Diego's first UHF independent station. The station at the time was based in the building once occupied by the National Pen Company, located in Kearny Mesa, a neighborhood ten miles northeast of downtown San Diego. However, in 1966, a fire gutted the KAAR building, and the station was off the air for more than a year while the building was being rebuilt. Channel 39 was sold to Bass Broadcasting, a Texas-based broadcaster, and returned to the air in 1968 as KCST-TV. The new call letters supposedly stood for California San Diego Television.

For a three to four year period in the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Bass tried to take the ABC network affiliation from XETV-TV (channel 6), a station licensed across the Mexican border in Tijuana but based in San Diego. XETV had been San Diego's ABC affiliate since 1956, but Bass claimed that it wasn't appropriate for an American television network to affiliate with a Mexican television station when there was a viable American station available. In 1972, the FCC revoked XETV's permission to carry ABC. KCST, as the only other commercial station in town, took over the ABC affiliation on July 1, 1973. and XETV became an independent station until it became a charter Fox affiliate in 1987. In 1973, KCST started a news department, with Harold Greene, later to gain fame in Los Angeles, as news director and lead news anchor.

Storer Broadcasting, owner of major network stations in the East and Midwest, bought KCST on September 30, 1974. In 1977, in the wake of its newfound success as America's number one television network, ABC switched its San Diego affiliation from KCST to KGTV (channel 10), with KCST taking KGTV's old NBC affiliation. ABC had never been happy with the way its San Diego affiliation had ended up on KCST in the first place, and had sought a way to get back on VHF at the first opportunity. This move did not please Storer, who retaliated by dropping ABC from KCST's then-sister station, WITI-TV in Milwaukee, in favor of CBS.

In 1985, Storer Broadcasting was taken over by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). Two years later, KCST and the other Storer stations were sold to Gillett Communications (except for former Storer flagship WTVG in Toledo, Ohio, which had been sold to a separate owner). On September 16, 1988, the station changed its call letters to the current KNSD. It also began calling itself "Channel 7/39" on-air. Gillett restructured into SCI TV in the early 1990s after it declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. After SCI filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992, its stations were sold to New World Communications. New World then entered into a deal with News Corporation in which most New World stations (mostly CBS affiliates, with a few ABC and NBC stations mixed in) would convert to the Fox network. However, KNSD stayed with NBC since Fox was already on VHF in San Diego (see XETV). KNSD and WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama were both sold to NBC in November 1996. That following January, KNSD began calling itself "NBC 7/39". Later in 1997, NBC sold a minority stake (24 percent) of KNSD to LIN Television, while in exchange, NBC acquired majority control (76 percent) of KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth from LIN.

On May 18, 2007, LIN TV announced that it was exploring strategic alternatives that could result in the sale of the company, including LIN's share of KNSD.[1]

In spring 2001, KNSD moved its studios and offices into a redeveloped high-rise office building in downtown San Diego, which includes an all glass enclosed street-level news studio resembling that of The Today Show in New York City's Rockefeller Center.


[edit] Programming
In addition to its network programming, KNSD is home to "Streetside San Diego" (a local lifestyles and infotainment program), Ellen, Access Hollywood, Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy! and Ebert & Roeper.

Digital Channels ch Programming
39.1 Main KNSD Programming
39.2 NBC Weather Plus


[edit] Personnel
Station General Manager: Phyllis Schwartz
News Director: Greg Dawson


[edit] Personalities

[edit] Current
Anchors

Rory Devine - weekend mornings
Catherine Garcia - 4 and 4:30 p.m.
Marianne Kushi - weekday mornings
Marty Levin - 4:30, 5, 6, and 11 p.m.
Steven Luke - weekend mornings
Bill Menish - weekday mornings
Artie Ojeda - weekend evenings
Susan Taylor - 4, 5, 6, and 11 p.m.
Weather

Pat Brown - weekday evenings
Lorrie Jordan - weekend mornings
Whitney Southwick - weekday mornings
Sports

Jim Laslavic - sports director (Sunday-Thursday, also hosts Sportswrap)
Jim Stone - Friday/Saturday sports anchor
Derek Togerson - reporter
Traffic

Jason Austell - early evenings
Kimberly King - weekday mornings, also host of Streetside San Diego
Reporters

Greg Bledsoe
George Chamberlin, money advisor
Emily Chang
Gene Cubbison
Bob Dale, "Pet Parade" segment seen weekend mornings (retired)
Monica Dean
Bob Hansen, consumer reporter
Ken Kramer, "About San Diego"
Steven Luke
Tania Luviano, anchors Mi San Diego TV 43
Mari Payton
Peggy Pico, medical correspondent
Tony Shin
Anne State
Vic Salazar

[edit] Past
Clark Anthony - anchor/reporter (1992-2002)
Stacey Baca - anchor/reporter (1999-2002, now at WLS-TV in Chicago)
Dave Bender - weather (1988-1991, later moved to KNBC and now at KOVR in Sacramento)
Paul Bloom - anchor/reporter (1977- 1982, 1984-1986 and 1988-1994; now at KUSI)
Laura Buxton - anchor/reporter (1980-1987, now at Channel 4 San Diego)
Tim Carr - anchor/reporter (1989-2001)
Bobby Estill - sports anchor (1988-1991)
Susan Farrell - anchor/reporter (1987-1998)
Bernard Gonzales - anchor/reporter (1988-1992 and 2001-2004)
Dave Gonzales - anchor/reporter (1984-1989, now at KCBS in Los Angeles)
Harold Greene - anchor (1969-1977, now at KCBS-TV in Los Angeles)
Laurence Gross - entertainment critic
Brian Hackney - weather anchor (1988-1990, now at KPIX-TV in San Francisco)
Roger Hedgecock - anchor (1991-1992, now a radio host at KOGO-AM)
Kevin Hunt - weekend anchor (1988-1990)
Al Keck - sports anchor (1986-1988, now at WFTS-TV in Tampa, Florida)
Lisa Kim - anchor (1995-1997, now at KNTV in San Jose/San Francisco)
Joe Lizura - weather anchor (1990-2006); now at KUSI
Dennis Morgigno - anchor/reporter (1978-1987, now at Channel 4 San Diego)
Margaret Radford- Reporter/Fill-in Anchor (1994-2007), now retired
Allison Ross - anchor (1991-1996)
Mike Smith - sports anchor (1967-1982, now a partner in Ad-Lib Productions)
Rolland Smith - anchor (1993-1996)
Lynn Stewart - reporter; now at XETV-TV
Bree Walker - anchor (1997-2000)
Dave Walker - anchor (1968-1988, now a partner in Ad-Lib Productions)
Sarah Wallace - anchor/reporter (1981-1985, now at WABC-TV in New York)
Denise Yamada - anchor/reporter (1977-1994)

[edit] Trivia
KNSD, under the traditional definition, is the only network O&O in San Diego.
KNSD is one of two NBC UHF O&O's, Hartford's WVIT/30 being the other; a third UHF O&O, WNCN/17 out of Raleigh-Durham was sold to Media General as of June 2006. In the past, the station blamed its woes on its UHF status, but as viewers move to cable and as many VHF analog stations transition to digital UHF, the problem of its position on the UHF dial has been reduced. [2]
KNSD also owns KNSD-LP channel 62, but it is leased to Entravision to expand the coverage area of KBNT-CA.